A standard Azir deck wins Riftbound Lille – but hold on meta chasers

Riftbound’s regional qualifier in Lille, France, has concluded, and a competitive Pokémon player turned Riftbound enthusiast has bagged himself the crown. Pedro B, as his Riot Name goes by, has won the tournament using a pretty bog-standard Azir deck list, and that is great news for the archetype.

For those curious, the official UVS Riftbound competitive Twitter account revealed the deck list, which you can see embedded below.

If that is what you’re here for, Godspeed, meta slavers. But there’s a catch you should know about why Azir has performed. And that largely is the meta of people hunting down Irelia, making room for Azir’s yellow deck versions to shine. And that’s part of the reason why Azir’s Green version is not meta right now.

Why an standard Azir deck won in Lille

Right now, Irelia is expected to be the best deck in the meta. We say that with the amount of Irelia decks that arrived in Lille, and she was technically up there with the best day 2 conversion rates. So as the tournament went on, the decks naturally favored countering Irelia from good players, hence why they failed to make it to the finals or top 4.

This naturally leaves room for Azir wide builds to shine.

For the most part, Azir as a deck is relatively fine to play. It is strong, obviously, as it won the tournament. But the list did not do anything special. During day 1, former best-of Azir player, Reckhlo mentioned in his post-game interview on stream that the only main matchup that will beat Azir with ease is Ezreal decks, largely thanks to Downfall. For those unaware, if you essentially rebuke or displace a token like that, they cease to exist, rather than die. So cards like Downfall and Judgement tend to counter it. But those are not necessarily the meta.

The recent Riftbound banned cards list also made it so that Azir can shine more. Largely thanks to detonate Draven and Miracle Ezreal decks being nuked.

The other major counters for the deck tend to be focused on killing lots of small units. But, decks don’t do that, largely thanks to big units like OGN Draven, Irelia being strong contenders in the meta game. Most decks did not account for Cannon Barrage, Icathia’s Rain, Tibbers, and big cleaving spells like that. These will typically counter board states where Azir has a lot of weaker units on the board. So, that explains why Azir was able to perform so well.

If Azir affects the remaining Spiritforged meta, expect a lot of deck breaking counters

So if you’re thinking that meta slaving over Azir is a good idea, know that there are a lot of strong options that can counter it. Presuming your local meta starts playing with Azir some more.

Other decks will likely run more Imperial Decree, Bellow’s Breath, Piercing Light, and other spells of that kind that can easily take down Azir Sand Soldiers before they have the chance to build up.

Then, considering green decks seem to have made 6 of the top 8, it means that Windwall becomes a sideboard option against Azir’s Arise signature spell. It’s the only counter spell, bar Fiora’s Riposte, that can deal with it. Throw in Red’s ability to counter Azir with 2 Thermo Beams in the side deck, and Azir can be countered.

If players start trying to focus more on countering Sand Soldiers, then it means that Green Azir will likely shine more. That plays a taller Green Azir champion unit, with spells, Emperor’s Divide, Stellacorn, and other gear to keep Green Azir alive with Brutalizer flickering. So if decks stop taking Singularity and spells like that to pop Irelia, then Green Azir and Irelia will shine more. So pick your poison.

Also, the big weakness with Azir is that if you don’t draw well, then he struggles. Azir needs to draw either a Doran’s Shield, Eye of the Herald, or Desert’s Call to do something on turn 1. Starting second gives some more room, otherwise you cannot get a Sand Soldier out on time. That’s a 17-25% chance of getting a Sand Soldier on your first turn to start scoring early. Failing to do that will cause Azir to struggle in any matchup. So know that Azir is an inconsistent, brickable deck.

All the more reason it’s so impressive that Pedro B took the entire tournament.